Friday, November 16, 2012

Stay Sharp Math Arcade

For the past ten years, our math learning center has offered a program called Stay Sharp! to help students maintain fluency with basic math facts during the summer months. We convert one of our larger classrooms into a math arcade and provide a variety of learning games and challenges. Students may opt to work in teams or attempt the challenges on their own. This is a favorite among children who attend the math center and they feel quite proud when they return to school with instant recall of all their math facts.

Many of the activities on Math Playground mirror the approaches and teaching philosophy we support at the learning center. Math Playground partnered with a developer of educational games to bring the excitement and benefit of our Stay Sharp! summer program to students who visit the website year round. The Stay Sharp Math Arcade contains practice games that help students with both basic and advanced math skills. Students may compete against other players or they may choose to play against the computer. The games address very specific math concepts and provide engaging learning environments that children enjoy. We currently offer games that reinforce math concepts related to addition, subtraction, time, money, multiplication, division, fractions, ratios, proportions, decimals, integers, and pre-algebra.

About the Author

Colleen King is a math educator with 15 years experience working with K-12 students in a variety of settings. Colleen publishes MathPlayground.com and develops math games, teaching tools, and learning resources that are used in classrooms throughout the world. She has presented her work at ISTE and NCTM conferences and has co-authored several teaching articles.